Production process of my horror film trailer.

Production name: VII

Pitch:
Fourth Kind and Poltergeist meet Amityville Horror in the woods.

Analysis - Fourth Kind: Real life, possession, unseen, unaware, isolation, therapy and not in control.
- Poltergeist: Demonic, torture, unseen possession, voyeuristic, weird things happening, things moving on their own and warnings.
- Amityville Horror: Murder, possesion, unaware, haunted, night and unseen
- Woods: Dark, isolated, low-tech, quiet and no support.
Amity horror meets paranormal activity in the woods.
analyisis - Amityville horror: haunting, unseen, killings, night, possession or demon, unaware.
Paranormal activity: torture, demon, voyeuristic, haunting, unseen, possessed.
Woods: alone, lost, quiet, dark, isolated, cold, no technology, no support.

Paradigm key:
Character paradigm
Setting paradigm
Plot paradigm
Villan paradigm
Prop paradigm

Scenario:
Teen is haunted by spirit, taken to the woods, her friends become possessed and attack her.

Treatment:

Opens up with main character in therapy after the event, talking about her experience with the paranormal, Ouija board etc. On the screen we see the time and date, the video goes static, and the time changes, earlier time and date, as we see her everyday life, friends at her house for a sleep over. They hear a banging on stairs and when investigating the noise see a smashed picture at the bottom of the stairs of all three of them. They all freak out, mention the Ouija board and then later go to sleep. Whilst asleep poltergeist activity and sounds. The camera fades to black and with giggling comes back into focus in the woods as the girls wake up. Moment of Disequilibrium. The main character is the first to awake due to the giggling and thinks it’s her friends trying to play a joke on her; she wakes them up and starts arguing with one of them about the situation. As the two are arguing the other one is sitting down with her head down, the camera zooms into them and you see a smile spread across their face and they giggle (same as before) the other two react and then - BOOM - instantly she comes back to normal. Then there is a sequence of weird things that happen (bussing etc.). One friend then again becomes possessed and tries to attack the other two, in an attempt to escape the other two run away. When the main character thinks they are safe, the possession then jumps to the other friend signified by the giggle, after attempting to attack the possession stops and they re-unit freaked out by these events. The main character decides to try and catch the poltergeist out and volunteers to keep watch for the night, but nothing happens. There is an escalation of paranoia etc, but nothing happens. One night one of the friends when keeping watch comes across a sharp object and wakes up the main character to concern her about it, as the main character wakes up with her friend holding a sharp object over her, she assumes they are possessed and pushes her away. As she pushes her she slips and hits her head on a rock, accidently killing the innocent girl instantly. The last two bury the body mortified and the morning after hears a giggle, they both freeze scared out of paranoia that the poltergeist has returned but instead a little girl appears through the trees with her parents, the two realise they aren't far from an opening and ask their way out. When they are out and life is about to go back to normal, the other friend becomes possessed when at home and commits suicide, with a close up of the blood and the smashed picture of them three in her hand. It then cuts back to therapy and as the session ends and the main character exits meeting her boyfriend the giggling sound appears from her boyfriend’s mouth, giving the impression that the haunting is far from finished but only just begun.

THE END

First draft planning, more improvements to come.

Paranormal activity - Film Review

Title: Paranormal Activity

Directed by: Oren Peli

Year: 2007

Studio: Blumhouse Productions, Solana Films

Paradigmatic conventions:

Setting: A two-story tract house in suburban San Diego, California

Character: Kate and Micah, a young couple.

Villain:  A ghostly presence

Props: Household items, sound and movement.

Evokes fear: The unseen becoming an opposing threat and wanting to rid you of your happiness.  

Plot synopsis: A young couple Kate and Micah move into a new house in suburban San Diego, California, when strange things start happening to them, items moved, loud noises in the night and other odd things. Kate claims that she has been haunted by a ghostly presence earlier in her youth and that it has followed her to her new home. When they call in a psychic they are informed that it is not simply a ghost haunting Kate but a demon. As Kate’s panic begins to increase alongside the odd happenings, Micah decides that he is to take this into his own hands and begins to attempt to get rid of this demon himself. However he tends to over look what the psychic had told them that ‘demon’s feed off of negative energy’, and what Micah thinks is him helping becomes him encouraging the demon even more, and the beginning of a slippery slope to living hell.

Second Bussing sequence

Planning:

When planning this second bussing sequence we used story boarding to better our outcome. In order for this story board to be quick and effective we roughly drafted what we wanted to appear on the screen with in the box, drew the character movement within the box, the camera movement outside the box and the shot type below the box.

What made the story board so helpful and effective is that through this planning method we were able to see clearly what we intended the finishing project to look like, and this time was not depending on the image in our heads. This made the filming a lot easier, however if i were to change something it would most likely be the detail in the storyboard, I would most likely add more detail and make it crystal clear what my intentions for this sequence was, in order to encounter fewer problems.

Execution:

Due to our storyboard planning our execution seemed to be a lot quicker and easier with a lot less useless shots. However we due to the complexity of our sequence we found that we left out a lot of reaction shots as well as close ups as we had so much to do in so little time. Therefore if I were to change the way this was done I would most likely simplify our storyboard more in order for it to be more efficient.

Editing:

As this was now our second time using the editing software, we decided that we wanted to be more adventurous with the editing and therefore made good use of jump cuts, making the camera action seem jagged and from the perspective of the "thing". We also mixed up the order in which we originally pictured the shots to be shown in. We realised that we didn’t actually have all the footage we needed and therefore had to reverse some of the footage for it to make sense (looking out of the door). We also decided to use a montage of shots to show time passing as the main character was working on the computer. If I were to change this I would probably use fewer shots as it was quite time consuming cutting each shot as well as adding some eerie music in order to add tension and make the audience more scared.

Bussing exercise.

Planning:We first started the process by thinking of a bussing sequance that we could easily film with the number of crew we had and the enviroment we were placed in. Once we had an initial idea in our heads of what we wanted in our bussing sequence we began to plan what we wanted to see. This envolved writing down the shot types we wanted and what the character was doing at the time. If I were to improve this process I would be more indepth with the planning, being clear about exactally how we would move from one shot to another whilst focusing on the character and the action with in the sequence.

Execution: The execution of the sequence was harder then we first thought. This was because we found it difficult to present what we imagened in our heads through the camera. We found our selves using a lot of film and taking more then one take on each shot. If I were to change anything it would be to take a wide range of different shots to give us more choice in editing but also block through what we wanted more before we started filming, in order to make sure we got exactly what we wanted.

Editing: When all the filming was finished we began to edit the shots we had in order to transform it into a horror sequence. We cut and moved certian shots inorder for our sequence to flow and make sense, we placed shot reverse shots and edited the speed in which some shots where played in order to gain a greater outcome. When editing our film we realised that the person running behind the main character in the mirror wasn't clearly noticed in normal speed and therefore decided to have that shot played in slow motion to draw more attention to it. We then decided to cut to a reaction shot in order show the characters paranoia kick in. In order to improve this sequence I would work with the music more, enabling it to create tension through out the piece as well as adding a more unexpected, sharp and abrupt sound towards the ending as the villan is revealed in order to get the audience jumping in their seats.